Judge hits out at 'inordinate delay' in prosecution of six year old child pornography case

By Gordon Deegan

A judge today hit out at the “inordinate delay” in bringing a prosecution for the possession of child pornography against a 41-year old Ennis man.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys said that “the ordinate delay of six years” in bringing the case against the man “is due entirely to the proper resources not being provided to the Gardai”.

In the case, the self confessed paedophile walked free after Judge Keys imposed a suspended 18 month prison term for the possession of child pornography on dates between 11th April 2010 and 11th April 2011 at an address in Ennis.

The man was first interviewed concerning the images in April 2011 and a charge and a Book of Evidence did not follow for another six years according to the judge.

At the sentencing hearing, Det Garda Stephen Ryan told the court that the Garda computer crime investigation unit is hugely understaffed “and there is a huge amount of computers being brought there creating a huge backlog”.

Gardai did not find anything incriminating on the man’s laptop or PC and the State case was entirely based on admissions that the man made in 2011 after his property was raided by Gardai.

In his Garda interview, read out to court, the man admitted to downloading 300 to 400 child porn images along with eight to 10 videos over the previous year.

The accused told Gardai that in online chatrooms used by himself and other paedophiles, the online names he called himself were ‘oldboy' and ‘lovesickpuppy’.

Asked by a Detective Garda how he describes himself on these sites, the man said: “A paedophile who likes boys.”

Asked is this something he struggles with, the man replied: “It is something I kept to myself for a long time. I did say it to my brother and sister back in 2001 and they encouraged me to get help but I didn’t know where to go with it.”

Asked has he had any physical sexual activity with boys, the man told Gardai: “No - I have not, but that would be my wish/fantasy.”

Asked would be consider himself to be a risk to young boys, the man replied: “No.”

The man said that he had forwarded images of semi-clothed and naked boys “from the age of four-up’ to other men he met online.

In the 2011 Garda interview, the man said that he had been using child porn sites since 2007.

Asked about the content of the images that he downloaded, the man said: “Boys mainly in swimwear. A few naked images. Also boys involved in sexual activity with other boys and adults as well - the latter were videos.”

Judge Keys said that aggravating factors were that the effect such offences have on children; that downloading such images promotes the use of child sexual exploitation and encourages distribution of such material.

On the mitigating factors, Judge Keys said that the accused has expressed remorse; has accepted that child porn possession is a serious offence; has pleaded guilty, has no previous conviction; is availing of professional help; hasn't come to the attention of the Gardai since 2011 and has insight into his wrong-doing.

He said: “There is no evidence that the man will re-offend or is a danger to society.”

Judge Keys said that the images downloaded were relatively small in number and were at the lower scale of images that can be downloaded.

Judge Keys said that the guidance in such cases is that prison terms be imposed for large numbers of images and where the images are depraved.

Imposing the suspended prison term, Judge Keys pointed out that the maximum sentence is five years; that this is not a distribution case and the man has been dealing with his problems.